I’ll start off this post by telling you that Rasheed Wallace has agreed to play for the Boston Celtics.  According the Boston Herald the contract is for 2 years at the midlevel exemption of $5.8 million.

Photo/Getty Images

Nothing shocking, it was only a matter of time before one of the teams that were wooing him got what they wanted, but to most of us here in Detroit, having Sheed in a Celtics uniform is not easy.

“The Enemy” to some.

“Traitor” to others.

Some will even give you the obligatory “You can launch your three’s and not play in the paint for another team, thanks for mailing in the last season Sheed.”

But to most Pistons fans we are thankful to him for putting our team over the top in 2004, allowing us a Championship we wont’ soon forget.

Rasheed Wallace is not a Detroit Piston anymore, and to be honest…..I’m surprised he made it this far.

After each season when the dominant Pistons got ousted from the Playoffs everyone called for his head. But how do you give up on a player that can dominate a game the way he can?

The man can be SHEEDtastic at the drop of a hat.

He can make the impossible seem possible.

He’s a Joker!

He’s very tricky..

But he also comes with hair pulling frustration.

I cant count the number of times I sat in my seat at the Palace hoping no one was paying attention to me as I was talking to Sheed from my seat while he was busy arguing on the floor. “Don’t do it Sheed, your going to get another Tech and get tossed, that will be 16 and I don’t think Joe D will be able to get that rescinded. We need you, you’ll be suspended. STOP!!!!”

I may not have lost sleep, but it eats at you when you have so much invested in a team.

That I won’t miss.

I will miss his Sheedisms, his dominance and the fact he made the team fun to watch in more ways than one.

The dancing was a sight in itself too.

He may work well with Boston playing a smaller roll since he NEVER wanted to be “the guy” when he clearly had the talent to be put into the category of one of the best Power Forwards in the game. He’s even got a special relationship with Kevin Garnett going in.

One thing that’s funny to me is all the Boston love for a guy that was the enemy of all enemy’s to Celtic fans.

As for Celtics and their fans…. I come in peace here, but I have been pushed over the edge way too many times by Celtics fans, I do however respect and enjoy some of the many Celtics blogs out there, so when Loy’s Place shot me an email asking me to answer a few questions for them I was just fine…until they ended the email with this…

Thanks!  And welcome to the Celtics family!!!

On to the next part of this post.

I will never ever, ever never be a Celtics fan and I take offense to the mere thought of being a part of that family, because I am not.

I will (until I stop breathing) bleed the red, white and Piston blue, that is one thing you can put your money on.

I will NOT change this website nor my allegiance to the Detroit Pistons.

As you can see from the new addendum to the banner on the site, I rep the “D” regardless of Sheed.

If you followed this site from it’s inception I have stated that fact on more than one occasion. I have be asked the question hundreds of times….”What will you do when Sheed is gone?”

I will do this, nothing changes.

“Will you change the name?”….as of right now, no.

You see, this site was never supposed to be.  I started it as a lazy way to share my cartoon screensaver to my friends across the country. You see even when you leave the “D” you still represent it.  So as a way share my wallpapers, screensavers and videos (pre YouTube days) this website became more than I ever envisioned it to be.

Now….I’m Need4Sheed.

Funny, but I can’t change it. It may be a name to all of you, but it’s almost part of my identity at this point. When you get introduced as Natalie of Need4Sheed instead of your last name things change.

You see, it never really was about Rasheed. Sure there is plenty of Sheed here, he brings a lot to any team, but it is and always will be about the love of the Detroit Pistons.

So Sheed is gone, we all knew it was going to happen at some point. I wish him luck, but I can’t say I will be rooting Boston, but I will be rooting for him.

This is Need4Sheed where we represent the Detroit Pistons..thank you for your time Mr. Wallace and thank you for allowing me to hold this in my hands.

Onwards and upwards….DEEETROIT BASKETBALL.

I take things for granted, we all do. No matter if it’s something big or very small, it’s human nature. I am not going to get into everything I am thankful for, but tell you that after hearing Vladan and Martin’s story I realized I have taken Deeetroit Basketball for granted for most of my life.

I get a ton of emails from readers of the site and it’s very rare that they don’t make me smile, so when I read Vladan’s email a few months back it made me more than just smile….it made me realize how lucky most of us are.

We are from Austria (Europe) and we are big Pistons fans, at least we
Keep telling this to ourselves when it’s 2 AM here and the game is just
About to start. It’s not easy being a Pistons fan in Europe.  As you can imagine, there is hardly any NBA basketball on TV and you can only watch League Pass games sometimes. Have you ever watched a game with Chinese commentary (because there were no other possibilities)?
You should try this. It really makes you appreciate the real deal.

Well, we’ve been talking for years about going to Detroit to watch a few games of our favorite team, get a feel for the town we feel so connected to even without ever really being there and see how life is like in Motown.

We are part-time working students so we had to save money for a while to make this happen…and we finally decided we will go on this trip.

Three good home games in a row (Boston, Cleveland, Miami).

You probably are asking yourself two questions right now.
1.) Why are two students from Europe, who have never been to Detroit, Pistons fans?
2.) Why are we telling this to you?

Well, the first question is easy.

Team basketball and they have a certain vibe to them. Just the way they behave and their attitude separate makes them stand out above the rest.

The answer to the second question will take a bit longer:

We have booked our flights, hotel and stuff like this. We know how we will get there and we’ve read about a few things worth sightseeing, but we don’t know obvious stuff – obvious to you, but not nearly well known enough for us Maybe you can give us some tips about where to go/where NOT to
We look forward to soaking in as much as we can.

I don’t know how early you plan the need4sheed “meetings”, but if it
Is in the same time when we are in Detroit, we would definitely join you.
That would be pretty cool.

Any information/tips/help would be appreciated,
Best regards
Vladan & Martin

Well Vladan and Martin Arrived yesterday! And guess what, they just happened to be in town when Need4Sheed is having one of our “gatherings.”

We arrived in Detroit a few hours ago. Flight was good (but a bit long, tho – total flight and waiting time was about 15-16 hours). When we arrived at our hotel, we didn’t like it, but that was probably because we were pretty tired. Now that we found out we have Digital Cable and High Speed Internet, we are pretty happy again.

Anyway, we had time to explore the city a bit – we’ve been to Greektown and some streets around our hotel. We had dinner at “Coach’s Corner” and watched the 1st half of the Cavaliers – Magic game on TNT. That isn’t even remotely possible in Austria. We really enjoyed it even tho we were the only people there except for the waitress. I guess that is because it is pretty cold and because the Red Wings play tonight, but who knows.

Our cab driver told us everything we need to know about the town…but I’m not sure he knows what he is talking about. He thinks Shaq is playing for Miami and that the Lions actually won a game or two this season…crazy. He was very nice tho.  He told us about the city’s problems and it is pretty depressing. Just sad to hear how people struggle right now in Motown. I hope it will get better soon.

We’ll be at the Palace tomorrow for the Celtics game as you already know.

Well I’m going to see Vladan and Martin in a couple of days, in fact I will be lucky enough to enjoy the game (and a little more) with them.

Now I’m reaching out to you for them….
Give them some tips on where and where not to go while in Town…
Remember, they are limited when it comes to transportation.
Help them get the best out of their time in The D, and let’s hope our Pistons don’t disappoint some loyal fans from across the globe who saved up for longer than we can imagine to see them play!